Melodifestivalen is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged almost every year since 1959. Since 2000, the competition has been the most popular television programme in Sweden; it is also broadcast on radio and the Internet. In 2012, the semi-finals averaged 3.3 million viewers, and over an estimated four million people in Sweden watched the final, almost half of the Swedish population.
Melodifestivalen 2005 was the selection for the 45th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 44th time that this system of picking a song had been used. Five semifinals had taken place to select the ten songs for the final, in Gothenburg, Linköping, Skellefteå, Växjö and a Second Chance round in Stockholm. The final was broadcast on SVT1 and Sveriges Radio's P4 network. Nanne Grönvall's defeat was met with consternation by many people, who felt that a gap of over 150,000 votes should be enough for victory. There were even calls for SVT to scrap the jury system altogether and simply let the televotes decide the winner. For a comparison, it was noted that Grönvall had received more votes than Lena Philipsson, the popular 2004 winner. However, SVT said that there was nothing they could do about the result. Four finalists topped the Swedish charts. Alcazar and Alcastar got to number one the week before the final, Jimmy Jansson got to the number one some weeks after that with Vi kan gunga, Martin Stenmarck's winner Las Vegas hit the top spot the week after that, while Nanne Grönvall and Håll om mig topped the charts the week after that.
The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest is selected by a positional voting system. The most recent system was implemented in the 2016 contest, and sees each participating country award two sets of 12, 10, 8–1 points to their 10 favourite songs: one set from their professional jury and the other from tele-voting.
Melodifestivalen is an event organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR) to determine the country's representative at the Eurovision Song Contest. The voting procedures to select the entrant for the annual contest have varied over the years since the country's debut in 1958. The Swedish broadcasters have experimented with techniques including splitting the juries by age, regional voting, and using an "expert" jury. Televoting was controversially first introduced in 1993, as an unannounced experiment. The Swedish telephone network promptly collapsed under the strain of phone calls being made.
Melodifestivalen is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged almost every year since 1959.
Sweden entered the Eurovision Song Contest 1993, held in Millstreet, Ireland.
Sweden selected its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 by holding an extending national selection, namely Melodifestivalen 2008. A record of 3 489 entries were submitted to the broadcaster SVT, and 28 were chosen to compete. They were completed with 4 wildcards in the end of December. Melodifestivalen was also this year held on Saturdays, starting with the first of the four semi-finals on 9 February and ending with a final on 15 March. It was the last of the year's national selections, as the official ESC draw was held on 17 March. Four songs progressed from each semi, two to the final and two to the second chance round, where the songs were competing in a knock-out round to gain the last two places in the final.
Melodifestivalen 2009 was a Swedish song contest held between February and March 2009. It was the selection for the 49th song to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest, and was the 48th edition of Melodifestivalen. Five semi-finals were held in the Swedish cities of Gothenburg, Skellefteå, Leksand and Malmö, with Norrköping hosting the final Andra Chansen round.
Sweden entered the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with "La voix", performed by Malena Ernman. Ernman was the winner of the Swedish song contest Melodifestivalen, which serves as Sweden's selection process for Eurovision.
Sweden entered the first Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2003, represented by the Honeypies - 10-year-old Rebecca Laakso and eleven-year-old Julia Urban - with the song "Stoppa mig".
The Eurovision Song Contest 2016 was the 61st edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Stockholm, Sweden, following Måns Zelmerlöw's win at the 2015 contest in Vienna, Austria with the song "Heroes". It was the sixth time Sweden had hosted the contest, having previously done so in 1975, 1985, 1992, 2000 and 2013. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT), the contest was held at the Ericsson Globe and consisted of two semi-finals on 10 and 12 May, and the final on 14 May 2016. The three live shows were hosted by Måns Zelmerlöw and Petra Mede.
Melodifestivalen 2011 was a Swedish song contest held between February and March 2011. It selected Sweden's 51st song to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest, and was the 50th edition of Melodifestivalen. Eric Saade, with the song "Popular", won the contest and thus was selected to represent Sweden in the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest.
Sweden participated in and won the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The Swedish entry was selected through Melodifestivalen 2012, a national final format that consisted of four semi-finals, a second chance round and a final, organised by Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT). Loreen represented Sweden with the song "Euphoria", which qualified from the second semi-final and went on to win the contest in the final, scoring 372 points.
Sweden participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Swedish entry was selected through Melodifestivalen 2014, a national final format that consisted of four semi-finals, a second chance round and a final, organised by Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT). Sanna Nielsen represented Sweden with the song "Undo", which qualified from the first semi-final and placed 3rd in the final, scoring 218 points.
Moldova participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Moldovan entry was selected through the national final O melodie pentru Europa 2014, organised by the Moldovan broadcaster TeleRadio-Moldova (TRM). Cristina Scarlat performed the Moldovan entry "Wild Soul" written by Ivan Akulov and Lidia Scarlat. The song failed to qualify from the first semi-final, placing 16th (last) with a score of 13 points.
Sweden participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "Heroes", written by Linnea Deb, Joy Deb and Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad. The song was performed by Måns Zelmerlöw. Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) organised the national final Melodifestivalen 2015 in order to select the Swedish entry for the 2015 contest in Vienna, Austria. After twenty-eight songs competed in a six-week long process consisting of four semi-finals, a second chance round and a final, "Heroes" performed by Måns Zelmerlöw emerged as the winner after gaining the most points from both an international jury and a public televote.
Sweden participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "If I Were Sorry" written by Oscar Fogelström, Michael Saxell, Fredrik Andersson and Frans Jeppsson-Wall. The song was performed by Frans. In addition to participating in the contest, the Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) also hosted the Eurovision Song Contest after winning the competition in 2015 with the song "Heroes" performed by Måns Zelmerlöw. SVT organised the national final Melodifestivalen 2016 in order to select the Swedish entry for the 2016 contest in Stockholm. After a six-week-long competition consisting of four semi-finals, a Second Chance round and a final, "If I Were Sorry" performed by Frans emerged as the winner after achieving the highest score following the combination of votes from eleven international jury groups and a public vote.
Sweden participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "I Can't Go On" written by David Kreuger, Hamed "K-One" Pirouzpanah and Robin Stjernberg. The song was performed by Robin Bengtsson. The Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) organised the national final Melodifestivalen 2017 in order to select the Swedish entry for the 2017 contest in Kiev, Ukraine. After a six-week-long competition consisting of four semi-finals, a Second Chance round and a final, "I Can't Go On" performed by Robin Bengtsson emerged as the winner after achieving the highest score following the combination of votes from eleven international jury groups and a public vote.
Sweden participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) organised the national final Melodifestivalen 2018 in order to select the Swedish entry for the 2018 contest in Lisbon, Portugal. After a six-week-long competition consisting of four semi-finals, a Second Chance round and a final, "Dance You Off" performed by Benjamin Ingrosso emerged as the winner after achieving the highest score following the combination of votes from eleven international jury groups and a public vote.
Sweden participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. The Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) organised the national final Melodifestivalen 2019 in order to select the Swedish entry for the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv, Israel. After a six-week-long competition consisting of four semi-finals, a Second Chance round and a final, "Too Late for Love" performed by John Lundvik emerged as the winner after achieving the highest score following the combination of votes from eight international juries and a public vote.
